vanilla {bottled}

Horrible picture, I know.

Ok.

I bottled up my vanilla.

Yes, I did that.

It was quite fun and fulfilling to me.
I was overflowing with joy.
Joy, I tell you.

I have a plan to put some of it for sale on my blog.
But I'm feeling a bit hesitant,
mostly because of mailing it...I'm so worried of a vanilla disaster
sweeping our mail system.
Though, wouldn't it smell divine?
It would.
Plus,
I'm a tad concerned about the price.
But, the thing is...I've got a lot of money into this little project.
And from what I've read,
the higher the alcohol content, the better the quality and concentration.
And um, me's gots a lots of alcohol goin' on.

So...be watching for my flavored vodka, I mean, vanilla extract sale.

Hopefully coming tomorrow or Friday-ish.

Good day!

conquered

Rough-housing.

My pictorial.

Hello, Daddy?
Are you still alive?
Hello?


Conquered by munchkins.

bye bye, b {and friends}

Well, I didn't take very many pics over our long weekend.

I just enjoyed my house FULL of kids.
And the 458 loads of laundry.

Then tonight all the big ones left to go back to school.
I managed to not cry this time.
Well, until they were pulling out of the driveway.
Sigh.

Don't you love Nick's pose in the background?


And Little Miss Lucy was like velcro to Brenden all weekend.
She sure loves him so much.

But we get him back in two weeks!
All to ourselves...for FOUR weeks.

Yay!

i need a haircut {so says my sister}

So this is what happens when your teenage sister
gets a hold of you when you are desperate
for a haircut.

Much needed hair cut took place today.

Thank goodness.

gobble, gobble

I have a few more pics I could post, but my internet is being...
*sigh*...difficult.
Which is way too common around here.

Anyway,
we had a very lovely Thanksgiving.

The weather was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.
Oh my.

So, here are some pics...

Please tell me you LOVE our new family photo!
:)
I was determined to get a good pic when B was home because
the only other one we have, isn't so great.

Love.

Love, love, love.

Thanks to B's friend, Nate, who knows how to work my camera
way better than I can!



I am soooooo happy to have Brenden home!
He is such a joy!!
And as I type this, two more of his friends are on their way
to our house!

I love my kids!
And all their friends!

So, I sure hope you all have an exquisite Thanksgiving too.




We all have SO MUCH to give thanks for.

thanksgiving sunday

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday.
Rather, I should say that Nick and Macy put it up.

It's way earlier than I care for.
But since Brenden loves Christmas so much and he's going
to be home tomorrow for Thanksgiving,
I thought it would be nice.
Want to be my golden child?
Move away, then come back, then go away again.

Anyway,
for whatever reason I thought it would be fun to put the tree in
our school room.
Regret started filling my heart early-on.
But I need to keep that to myself,
lest I will be dragging the thing, lights, ornaments, and all,
to the living room,
all by myself.

So. It stays, I reckon.

Macy is sort of like Wilson from Home Improvement...

But this photographer doesn't give up.

Nick worked extra hard.
He loves him some Christmas too.

Mother, enough.

Half-way through our decorating efforts,
we went to my parents' house for our family T-day dinner.

And since my sisters and I all moonlight as
supermodels, we figured we should take a few photos.
Of just us.
Because that's just the sort of thing we do.

Umm, I really have no words.
But suffice it to say,
don't even try to mimic the pouty face.
It takes special training.
It will be in all the fashion magazines soon.
Really, it will.

Cutest girls around.
We think so anyway.

Back to the decorating.

And Isaiah no longer will pose as a normal person.

He insists on being a dinosaur.

A scary dinosaur.

Be very, very afraid.

Come on, Lucy.
We're outta here.

Have a super duper Monday!

regis {wah}

I am so not into being awe-filled over movie stars or "famous people"...
I couldn't care less who is on the latest People Magazine
or on Entertainment Tonight.

In fact, this morning on Facebook I saw gobs of posts about
Breaking Dawn...and I had to google it
to see what the heck everyone was talking about.

So not interesting.

But, I have adored Regis every morning since I started watching
him when Brenden was born.

And today was his last day on his show.

And I'm so sad!!

He is the ultimate story-teller and made me laugh
at his simple faux pas from the night before.
He's just funny-funny.
Non-political.
Such a gentleman.
And darn funny.

Wah.

I'm so sad to see him go.

Wah, wah, wah.




Anyone else love Regis?

check it out!

Hey, go check out my friend Mandi's blog!

She is doing an incredible adoption fundraiser giveaway
that you really
do not
want to miss out on!

Think, iPad 2.

*Smile*

And other great items!

Go check it out!

feisty fella {God is good!}

Isaiah's "special need" that landed him on
The Waiting Child list continues
to be a mystery.

Mysterious...because it appears that something might possibly
be there...but yet we can't quite nail it.

One thing we did last week was take him to
a pediatric ophthalmologist
to see if anything could be concluded from a good eye exam.

He checked out just fine.

And let me tell you,
this little guy was SO GOOD for the exam.

I still can't believe just how good he was.
And charming.
And cute.
And made the doctor and nurse laugh.

He was the complete opposite of his sibling whose
name rhymes with Lucy.

God is so good to bring this little feisty fella into our family!

And we are so grateful that so far,
his health seems to be A-OK!

gorgeous!

Isn't that a gorgeous necklace?

My friend Gayly is making them!

And right now, if you buy one by November 17,
some of proceeds go to help
my friend Connie.

Go to their sites to get all the details!
(Click on their names)

Buy one for yourself...and do some Christmas shopping
while you're at it.

Enjoy!


But hurry cause they're selling fast!

happy birthday to me {perimenopausal trilogy}

So yesterday was my birthday.

Number 43, on

11.12.11

Obviously my mother just wasn't thinking ahead when
she decided to hold me off until 12th, thus missing the 11.11.11 mark.
Bless her heart.
She did what she could.

All bitterness aside,
I think it's the perfect time to wrap up my perimenopausal
discussion, making it into a much-deserved trilogy.

Who am I kidding, we'll whine about this thing til
we're all completely through with it.

Yes, we sure will.

So let's recap.

We've covered sleeplessness.
We've talked about moodiness.

And now we'll discuss weight gain.

Lord have mercy, where in the world did this jelly roll come from?
Or as the kids today would call it,
a muffin top.

Disclaimer:
This is not me.
I repeat, NOT ME.
Not that this lovely gal looks bad,
I'm just not quite there yet.
But we're moving in that general direction.


So really I have nothing else to say about this.

I think we all can agree that
God has an interesting sense of humor.


Oh wait...I forgot all about unwanted facial hair.
Well, we'll save that for another day.


So, Happy Birthday to me.
Now excuse me while I grab my love handles
and try to work in a nap.
And where the heck are my tweezers?

hodge-podge-whimsical-fun

My life continues to be a hodge-podge of chaotic craziness.
But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Actually, I would.
It really wouldn't hurt my feelings for someone to swing by every
Thursday (or whatever day...I'm not picky at all)
to ease my burden of house-cleaning and child-rearing.
At least for an afternoon.
Or five.


Ok, moving on...






Today was lovely because my littles and I spent
the morning with my friend Mary and
her two adorable little Ethiopian darlins'.
And dern-it, I forgot my camera.
But just imagine the cutest Chinese/African kiddos
together, playing ever-so-nicely.
Cute as lil' buttons, they were!

And let me just tell you, there ain't nothing like two adoptive
moms getting together to vent and laugh about
the roller coaster ride of adoption.
No amount of high-dollar therapy can ever top that.


Backing up a bit...

So last week my Chinese friend Joyce came over
with a couple of her college comrades to
interview me about attachment for a project they are doing for their
master's program in social work.

It was most delightful!
And Joyce even brought mooncakes, fresh from Beijing...that her
uncle made,
hand delivered right here to us in the heart of
the Midwest in a Chipotle bag.

We laughed.
Oh, did we laugh.

Unrelated to that
(because my thoughts are very scattered)...

While I was making dinner last night,
Isaiah came up to me in this Santa hat asking me if he could watch a movie.
It was hilarious.
He has no idea who Santa is.
And I have no idea where he found the hat.

And remember how I was on a glass jar craze?

Well, I decided that things looked a little too serious
with all the tans & whites.


So I added a splash of color and whimsical fun...

M & M's solve everything, don't they?



And lastly,
here is Isaiah from earlier today.
He dressed himself.
No, really...he did.

So there you have it.


I'm tired and need to get some coffee or something.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

lucy the prayer warrior

Every single day the very first thing Lucy and
I do before we get started with school
is get out her prayer journal that she started a couple
months ago, and PRAY.

She is quite the little prayer warrior.

She prays for a variety of people on a regular basis.
And then there's a few who make the list on some weeks,
and not on others.
I have no idea of her rhyme or reason.
If you're not on her list, take it up with her.

But Brenden is ALWAYS first on the list.
Every single time. How sweet is that?

Anyway,
she also lists what she's thankful for for that week.

This week's thankful list:
closet
church
books
food
room
clothes
laundry

I assume the laundry one really means that she's so
very thankful for a mommy who does an amazingly fabulous
job getting her clothes clean, folded and sometimes put away.

Oh how our Lord's ears perk when He hears one of
His littlest ones calling on Him!



*I got reprimanded for taking pics while we were praying,
just so you know.

Have a happy Monday!

And don't forget to pray with your kids.